A
former technocratic prime minister of Romania and a European commissioner for
agriculture, Dacian Cioloş resigned as president of the Save Romania Union,
four months after being elected. The reason for his resignation is that the party
leadership, which is dominated by allies of the former president, Dan Barna, rejected
the reform project he initiated. Cioloş says this does not mean he will abandon
the party:
Owing
to the lack of support for this plan in the National Bureau, I believe the
decent thing to do is tender my resignation. I remain, however, in the party. In
order to have a future, and I believe it must have a future, this party needs
refreshing, needs to reconnect itself to the society, needs the courage to recognise
the limits it must overcome in the near future.
The
former transport minister Cătălin Drulă has taken over as interim leader and
immediately announced a change of course to a more Liberal political orientation.
He called on par